Law and Marriage: Where do you stand?

[DarkPhenyx]

http://discover.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.jhtml?prgId=5&prgDate=July/10/2003

NPR is doing a series on the family. About halfway down you'll find a link for the audio from this segment discussing wether or not the State should be involved in marriage.

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Early morning kick...

...for the people who weren't up at 1:00 this morning.

[HFishbine]

2. Thoughts

The state has a role in legitimizing a legal tie between two committed individuals. This legal recognition is used for such things as hospital visitation rights, insurance benefits, etc.

Marriage is a religious act. The state should remove itself from the recognition of marriage and simply issue licences that legalize a commitment. Call them espousal licenses, nuptual licenses or whatever and allow them to be aquired by adults of the same or opposite sex. This leaves those who want to claim marriage is only for a man and a woman free to continue with their beliefs without having them challenged by a state sanctioned license while giving homesexual couples equal access to the law.

(edited for clarity)

[DarkPhenyx]

3. So how about...

...as one caller asked, those people who choose a multiple partner form of commitment? Particularly if two of the individuals involved have children from both of the other partners...or even more complex relationships.

[election_2004]

4. question...

If the State deauthorizes itself from defining marriage, then what will happen to all the people who've obtained marriage certificates over the past couple of centuries? Will their marriages be retroactively deemed null and void?